Essay from the year 2011 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Modern Times, Absolutism, Industrialization, Chapman University (Brandman/Chapman University, California), language: English, abstract: Contemporary counterinsurgency doctrine essentially describes counterinsurgency as an inherently political and cultural contest for the trust of the population and an inherent principle in this contest is the primacy of legitimate government: essentially politics has primacy and in counterinsurgency, "all politics is local." Clausewitz said that "the ideal of a logically complete or sufficient answer to any problem in warfare is sheer delusion". Many would ask how a book written over 150 years ago would be relevant today and worth the time in a counterinsurgency.